Last thing to do in the old year 2013, is to make, what else could it be, cheese. Now my girlfriend and I had a good impression what a Chaource looks like, because we had this cheese several times to eat, in Iceland made at a farm there and also the original bought at the Naschmarkt in Vienna. Now we wanted to try the same with ewe's milk. Normally Chaource is made from cow's milk and as there is less fat and protein in cow's milk and the milk reacts different, I calculated the amount of water to add to reach the same composition. This seems to work out really well (without additional Calciumchloride), as you can see in our pictures, which show the cheese after 5 days in our DIY aging fridge, already covered with PC mold. I got this hint with additional water for same processing technology from a milk technician in Tyrol, who works with sheep's milk a lot, so I gave it a try and it is really easy, because the periods of time for aging the milk to a certain pH were the same as with cow's milk. So there's is nothing more to say, except I am really looking forward to taste the cheese after a few weeks of aging. Has someone an idea what's the maximum aging time for this cheese? And after which time will it be ideal to wrap it in foil?

Here are some new photos of the actual aging status. The cheese is in the ripening fridge since 31st december 2013, thus it is 9 days old on the pictures below.The cheese is still firm on the outside. Mold growth is really great. To my opinion temperature and humidity is ideal for now, maybe it needs adjustment when the cheese gets mature.Currently I am planning to wrap the cheese in foil within the 4th week of aging. I am dying to see how the Sheep'ource looks inside, when it has reached its ripeness.

I have some grape leaves from the last cheese I made soaked in Gin, maybe I give it a try and wrap one or two of the Chaource style sheep cheeses in them.

Pictures (9th day of aging):

I had to make bigger cheeses too, because I haven't had enough Chaource moulds:

I added 20% water to the amount of milk (14 liters) this time and it worked for me quite nice. Maybe if the fat content would be higher, I would add up to 30%. However I had ~4 kg cheese (fat, protein, water content) at the end, the smaller one's had 180g (20 pieces) and the 2 bigger one's had 240g. If I knew the protein and fat content exactly, I would calculate the exact water content to add with a mixing ratio calculation, based on the fat content (was not the case, because I had it from a sheep farmer nearby and he could not exactly tell me, because he normally delivers it to a creamery and they have not told him for this month).

Example with 100 liters:

• Milk (6% fat content)• Water (0% fat)• Target-fat-content: 4%

6-4 = 2 units water4-0 = 4 units milk

6 fat-units in total, so 100 liter divided by 6 and multiplied with the units for milk and water (4 and 2)

YOur cheese looks great!! Usually PC cheese experts tell you to pat the white mold down regularly so it doesn't get too thick but I never saw that information a book and I ruined some cheeses until someone told me to pat it down gently. Now I pass on that idea to others.......but I do not know if it is the right thing for this exact cheese.

YOur cheese looks great!! Usually PC cheese experts tell you to pat the white mold down regularly so it doesn't get too thick but I never saw that information a book and I ruined some cheeses until someone told me to pat it down gently. Now I pass on that idea to others.......but I do not know if it is the right thing for this exact cheese.

What effect does the patting down have? Causes it, that the moisture stays in the cheese instead of coming out too much, so that it prevents the cheese from drying out? It has never occurred to me that the rind got too thick, maybe because I have the possibility to hold humidity and temperature very accurately.

There is another question I have: If I wrap the cheese and put down the temperature for storing (+4°C), how high should then be the humidity in the storage room? I would have thought low (~75-80% rH), because if the humidity is too high, it will condensate on the inside of the cheese paper/foil and make it sweat. Would someone please correct me if I am completely wrong

I am no expert but when I do wrap a cheese I move it to a colder refrigerator. (my kitchen fridge)

Patting down the PC helps prevent thick rinds I believe but it has to be done a lot of you are having luxuriant PC growth. They say of good gardeners that they have a "green thumb" so it made me wonder if I have a "white thumb" when I saw how fast and thick my PC would grow. Forum experts said to use less PC but perhaps as important are the conditions on the rind of the cheese and humidity and temp. A lot of recipes use both Geo and PC and people try to find a balance of growth of those two. There are different types of PC, some are more restrained than others. For myself I don't mind if the skin is a little thick on PC cheeses. I like the succulence of it. Using Geo and PC will, if I remember correctly, help avoid a totally liquid ripe cheese that sometimes happens with just PC. If I have made mistakes in all of this I hope others will chime in and correct me.

Thank you all for your previous replies. I have taken new pictures of my chaource style cheese yesterday (aging time: 2 weeks).

I am very happy so far, how the cheese turned out. It got a bit less firm over the last days and the color turned into a white to golden tone. That should be normal so far. I am already patting down the fluff every second day. The temperature in the aging fridge is now 10°C (±0,5 °C), to allow the cheese to age slowly and to slow down the PC growth, because it was very fast so far.

New pictures from the my cheese at the age of 19 days now, temperature still 10°C and 90% rH.

I think they turn out quite nice so far. Next week I will cut the first one to see how it turned out.

It is already getting some yellow to orange spots. Are these spots derived from the geotrichum candidum beneath the PC surface, or why do these yellowish to orange spots occur? I have already seen them on other chaource cheeses too.